Heavy hittin’

Go figure the topic of hard hitters came up Monday morning while I golfed with defensive line coach Randy Hart, running backs coach Steve Gervais and TV/radio personality Brian Davis. (We comprised one of a handful of foursomes at Washington National Monday for the annual Huskies coaches-media golf outing.)

The conversation began as Davis and Gervais talked about safety in high school games. Gervais, as you probably know, won six state championships while coaching at the high school level — including the 2007 3A title at Sammamish’s Skyline High.

Hart, a disciple of legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, took the conversation a different direction, though.

Hart played for the Buckeyes and graduated in 1970. He was a graduate assistant under Hayes in 1970-71, meaning he played with and coached one of the hardest hitters in the history of college football — Buckeyes safety Jack Tatum.

Hart recalled seeing a play on which a receiver ran a route to the middle of the field, only to be clobbered — and I believe, knocked out — by Tatum.

Here is what I found interesting: Hart said that kind of contact is simply “part of the game.” He also said that if anyone was at fault, it was the offensive coordinator, who sent a helpless receiver into the wide-open space for the hunting safety.

The first thought that popped into my head was the recent memory of Oregon State safety Al Afalava hitting Huskies quarterback Jake Locker, who was promptly strapped to a board and left the stadium in an ambulance.

I asked Hart what he thought of that and he summed it up in one word.

“Legal,” the veteran coach said.

Hart said he thought Afalava saw a quarterback trying to run for a first down. A tough defensive player’s first instinct should be “Sick ‘em!”

Hart noted Locker was in bounds. “Part of that is on Jake,” Hart said. Then Hart added, “But that’s also Jake’s, too, so what do you do?”

In other words, the tough defender is going to go try to make a stop, make a play. And the quarterback with the will to win is going to go for the first down.

I got the notion Hart wouldn’t mind having some ferocious hitters hungry to make the stop on his line.